The present invention generally relates to the field of integrated circuit design, and particularly to a system and method for optimizing an integrated circuit design.
Integrated circuits (IC) have become one of the most necessary components in mordern devices. From automobiles and cell phones, to kitchen appliances and video gaming devices, integrated circuits provide a variety of functions. To provide this variety in an optimized manner, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) may be utilized.
An application specific integrated circuit is generally designed for a specific application rather than as a general-purpose chip. The use of application specific integrated circuits improve performance over general-purpose chips, because application specific integrated circuits are xe2x80x9chardwiredxe2x80x9d to do a specific job, and may thus, not incur the overhead of fetching and interpreting stored instructions. Thus, an application specific integrated circuit may perform an electronic operation in an optimized manner providing that the circuit design is efficiently architected.
However, producing such a wide range of application specific integrated circuits, each having targeted functionality, may be complex, expensive and time consuming. For example, the very size of the circuit, which may include a variety of clock domains, may require extensive testing, verification and redesign before an operational model is produced.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for optimizing an integrated circuit design.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an interconnect. The present invention provides a comprehensive design environment defining a system architecture and methodology that may integrate interconnects, cores, ePLC, re-configurable processors and software into a manageable and predictable system designs that achieve on-time system IC design results meeting desired specifications and budgets. For example, the present invention may provide a scalable, temporal interconnect-fabric with standardized core interfaces, and implement a methodology to integrate configurable processors, and solution software to design an integrated circuit.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for designing an integrated circuit includes receiving data specifying a plurality of interconnects and components of a design of an integrated circuit and optimizing the design of the integrated circuit. Data specifying the plurality of interconnects and devices of the integrated circuit is optimized based on at least one of bandwidth, scalability, latency, position of devices and interconnect configuration.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a self-progrmnmable integrated circuit includes a processor suitable for performing a program of instructions, the processor accessible via an interconnect. At least two components of the integrated circuit are included, the components communicatively connected via an interconnect. A memory is included suitable storing a program of instructions. The program of instructions configures the processor to optimize the integrated circuit based on heuristic data indicating past utilization of components of the integrated circuit.
In a third aspect of the present invention, an integrated circuit design system includes an electronic data storage device including a database having data describing integrated circuit component characteristics, firm macros, soft macros and an agent implemented by a processor. The agent is suitable for providing a design environment on an information handling system in which the design environment enables a user to design an integrated circuit to arrive at integrated circuit design data, the agent suitable for optimizing the integrated circuit design data utilizing the database having data describing integrated circuit component characteristics, firm macros and soft macros.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.